Friday, July 13, 2012

On Thursday, July 12, 2007, I was diagnosed with stage 3 locally advanced ductal carcinoma of the triple negative kind. Back then, those were just a bunch of big words that I didn't understand. I could not have foreseen the impact that diagnosis would have on my life. But here I am, five years and one day later, Friday, July 13, 2012, writing these words. And where am I exactly?

I'm at gate D24 in the airport at Toronto, waiting for my flight back to Vancouver. I was here for a cocktail party given by my literary agency. Yes, I came all this way for a cocktail party for my own personal celebration (though no one else knew it as such). You see, this year has been a big year in a good way. I got my Canadian citizenship, I got my MFA degree from UBC, and I finished writing my first memoir. Originally, I was writing a memoir about growing up with the scant memories my parents shared about the Vietnam War and how I unearthed more history and stories as I became older. But when I was diagnosed with and treated for cancer, those stories and experiences became more layered and profound. Because my parents so generously came to help take care of me and my family during my treatment, I began to identify with their histories in a new way. Throughout my treatment, I experienced isolation, solitude, disorientation...psychic chaos. Everything that I had believed in about myself was being challenged. And it wasn't just a struggle for me, but for everyone around me. Five years later, I'm grateful for my parents for coming to live with me for almost a year, but admittedly, back then, I wasn't.

When I finished treatment and got through my surgery, I thought life that would resume as planned. I'd go back to school, write the book I had intended to write, graduate, and live happily ever after. Of course, we all know that's not what happened. I went back to school, started writing a new book about my cancer journey and how I began identifying with my parents' experiences...and then my marriage fell apart, and I stopped writing. A little over a year after my bilateral mastectomy, I attempted suicide. Then I did the work to get better, tried to pick up the pieces, and move on.

Still, the writing was nonexistent, while life kept happening. But the more that happened, good and bad, the more I kept seeing my life paralleling my parents'. And when I was ready to truly heal from all the devastation, the writing started up again. The result is my book, What Doesn't Kill Me.

As heavy as all that sounds, I can assure you that there's plenty of hilarity in the book, or so I've been told by those who have read it. I've had the tremendous fortune to have a number of agents offer to represent me, and I believe I chose the perfect agency, Anne McDermid Agency. Her team has been fantastic in the early stages of putting together a package to shop around to the publishers. I'm really excited to see that this is all coming together. My wonderful husband, Anton, is creating my website, and you can sneak a peek at brandyworrall.com. It's not finished yet, but we hope to launch it in a couple days. Also, if you haven't already done so, hop on over to Facebook to like my author page, Facebook.com/brandylienworrallsoriano.

So I'm here in Toronto, waiting to go back to Vancouver, where upon arrival, I have to go to the emergency room! Sadly, five years later, I'm still dealing with medical crap. In May, I had two procedures done. One was called a capsulotomy, where my plastic surgeon, who's been with me from the beginning, opened up my right breast and scored the hardened scar tissue. Hardened tissue in the breast is a long-term effect from radiation (which no one bothered to tell me about back then), and the tissue became so hard that it was causing pain. My surgeon told me it's very possible that she will have to do this again in the future.

The second procedure I had done was a hernia repair. Because of the mesh in my stomach not bending when I was pregnant with Moxie, I developed a hernia two inches above my bellybutton. Two weeks after surgery, I noticed that my belly had a waterbed effect. Apparently, I developed a seroma, which is a pocket of fluid built up in a cavity where there was surgery. I saw my plastic surgeon four times, during which she used a gigantic syringe to drain the fluid. She then decided that perhaps it'd be best to insert a drainage catheter and leave it there until the fluid cleared up.

Unfortunately, I developed a nasty infection that won't go away no matter what. That's why I have to go to the hospital after I get off the plane. Way to celebrate the fifth anniversary of my cancer diagnosis, right? It's too fucking fitting, is what.

But hey, I'm still here. Some of the friends I've met along the way these past five years are not. After I get off these damn antibiotics, I'm going to drink to them and to this crazy gig called life.

About Me

I grew up in rural Pennsylvania with my Vietnamese mom and Pennsylvania Dutch dad, and went to university in Boston, Los Angeles, and Vancouver. I'm currently writing a memoir about my journey with cancer, infidelity, and divorce, and how that journey has paralleled my parents' experiences during and after the Vietnam War.